The Hearth Is Born
by Percy Son of Neptune
Summary: Alyssa Ember isn't a normal teenager. When she burns down her school, her seventh in seven years, her life takes a turn for the worse. But that was before the greatest musicians the world as ever seen go missing. Alyssa must find and rescue the musicians before the world is thrown into chaos. Journey with Alyssa as she travels across America in search of these famous musicians.
1. I Set Fire To My School

**I**

_Alyssa_

I Set Fire To My School

I stood outside my school as I watched it burn to the ground.

I also stood outside knowing I wouldn't be allowed back.

Why, you ask?

Well, I was the one to burn it down.

If you would ask me why I lit the school on fire, I would say that I didn't; that the fire just appeared out of nowhere in front of me. I would also tell you that when I was trying to put the fire out, it just got worse and worse.

Of course, the principal never believed me.

I should probably introduce myself now that you know how much of a bad child I am.

My name is Alyssa Ember. I'm thirteen years old and I go to North Burn Middle School, or at least I used to. I have ADHD and dyslexia. Both of my parents died in a house fire just after I was born, so I live with my foster parents.

I'm biologically an only child, however I have an older foster sister who is a freshman in high school, although, since I 'lit' the fire, I probably will have to find another foster family.

I am what you would call an outcast in school. I only have one friend, Calvin Shaw. Calvin has curly brown hair and always wears this red rasta cap. He's sort of scrawny and probably the only person in the seventh grade to have acne and the start of a beard on his chin. He has a medical disorder in his legs so he walks with a slight limp, and he has this strange addiction to cheese enchiladas.

Not exactly a top-rate friend. But neither am I.

Anyways, let me explain how the school burnt down.

* * *

It was the second-to-last day of school.

I was just sitting at my desk in math, and I was really bored. My mind started to wander. The doctor said that this is due to the ADHD, although I wasn't so sure.

I was thinking of how I had almost made it through the entire school year this year (I had "burned down" all of my previous schools, never lasting in one school for more than a year). I thought about all of my previous schools, how I was able to make many friends before I sent the school up in flames.

Flames. Why does everything with me have to do with flames? First my parents, and now every school that I've ever attended. Why can't I just make-

My thoughts were interrupted by a scream.

"FIRE!"

It was on my desk. Great, now someone is going to accuse me of lighting it.

I attempted to extinguish it. However, like every other school, the fire just got much, much worse. I had to get out of my seat.

"Quick, someone pull the fire alarm!" The teacher yelled.

Someone sprinted out of the room.

Riiiing! The fire alarm went off.

We filed out of the room.

"Alyssa lit it!" I heard someone shout.

"Yeah! The fire appeared on her desk!" Someone else shouted.

Several other people in our class agreed.

The teacher turned to me, "You will go to the principal once this is over young lady."

I sighed. Oh well, I guess there is no point in arguing.

I turned to Calvin, who seemed to be the only person who understood me.

"I don't know what happened," I said. "It just all of a sudden was there."

"Don't worry Lys, I know that you didn't intentionally light it," Calvin said.

"What do you mean intentionally?" I asked. "I didn't light it at all! It was just there!"

"Ok, ok, I believe you," he said putting his hand into the air in a 'back-off' motion. "You got to admit though, a fire just appears out of nowhere on a student's desk and with no chemicals around anywhere, the school has a good reason to suspect the student."

* * *

Forty minutes later, I was outside talking to the principal.

"I'm sorry Alyssa, but all the evidence points to you, and when the entire school burns down, we need to have someone to blame."

"But sir-"

"I'm sorry, but you have to be expelled."

Great, so much for almost making it through the school year.

I walked back to Calvin dejected.

"How bad?" He asked.

"I got expelled."

"Good riddance," I heard someone say.

I turned around expecting one of the students. However, I was surprised when I saw my math teacher, Mrs. Scott.

Mrs. Scott had always hated me. I don't know why, because before today I hadn't done anything to make her hate me. It just seemed like she hated me because I was me. There was no other reason. I know, stupid right?

I decided to make sure I heard her right.

"Um, excuse me?" I asked.

"You heard me, half-blood," she replied in her normal, snarky tone.

Beside me, Calvin yelped.

Before I had a chance to ask what she meant, she began to change. And I don't mean change clothes, I mean change form.

Her eyes began to glow. Her fingers grew longer, turning into talons. She somehow grew a pair of leathery wings. By the time she was done changing, she definitely wasn't human.

Calvin swore in Ancient Greek. The funny thing is, I understood him completely.

"A Kindly One at our school. I should have known," he said louder.

"What?" I looked at him crazily.

He didn't answer.

He kicked off his shoes, took off his pants, and whipped out a long bronze-colored knife.

Surprised and on impulse, I looked at his legs. They weren't really legs, more like shaggy hindquarters, like the kind a sheep would have.

Then I looked down at his feet, or what I thought were his feet. All of a sudden I understood the medical disorder he had in his legs. Instead of feet, he had cloven hooves.

"Alyssa, stand back! I'll handle this," he shouted.

Calvin never used my full name unless something was wrong. I took a couple of steps back. All of a sudden, Mrs. Scott flew at Calvin.

I don't really know what happened next. Calvin ducked and attempted to slash at my math teacher. He missed and Mrs. Scott came around for another pass. This time Calvin didn't have a chance. Mrs. Scott flattened him into the ground and he was knocked unconscious. His knife bounced out of his hand and over to me. I picked it up, trembling with fear.

Mrs. Scott cackled, which I assume was her laughing. Then she charged at me. I was scared out of my mind. I didn't know what to do, so I did the natural thing: I swung the knife.

The blade hit her arm and sliced through like water. Mrs. Scott exploded into a golden powder. It was as if she was vaporized.

My last thought before walking over to check on Calvin was, _Oh god, what have I gotten myself into?_

* * *

**A/N:**

**Ok, so I know it's a really short chapter guys, and it looks exactly like Percy's situation, but hang in with me here. The story follows this for the first five chapters, but it'll take a tangent at around chapter 6. So if you guys could hold out on me until then that would be absolutely great. **

**I'll try to update at least once every week, hopefully it'll be more than that, but I'm still currently in the middle of writing the story itself, and I'll get on that right away.**

**Remember to review!**

**Thanks!**

**-Percy Son of Neptune**


	2. Snakes Attack Well, Sort Of

**II**

_Alyssa_

Snakes Attack (Well, Sort Of)

Calvin woke up ten minutes later.

"Wha-" He looked around crazily. By this time, almost all of the students had gotten a ride home from what used to be the school.

"Glad to see you're up finally," I said nonchalantly.

"What happened?" He asked.

"Oh, nothing much," I replied sarcastically. "We just got attacked by my math teacher, who apparently is a Kingly One or something like that."

"I remember now!" He shouted, which drew the attention of most of the people who were still there. Somehow they hadn't managed to notice Mrs. Scott attack us, even though they were only standing a few yards away. "Oh gods, we need to get you to camp."

"Hold on sheep boy. My best friend is half-sheep from the waist down-" I started to say.

"Sheep boy?" Calvin said. "_Blaa-ha-ha_!"

"What?" I asked, kind of worried. I had heard that sound from him before, but I always thought it was a nervous laugh. Now I realized that it was more of an irritated bleat.

"Goat! I'm half-goat from the waist down!" He said. "There are satyrs who would trample you for such a comment."

"Wait a minute," I said. "Satyrs? You mean the myths we learned in Latin?"

"Was Mrs. Scott a myth, Alyssa? Am I a myth?"

"You're supposed to be!" I shouted.

"Well, I'm not," he replied. "Come on, we need to get moving!"

He grabbed the keys to a teacher's car out of their hand and ran to the faculty parking lot.

Call me crazy, but I still needed answers, so I followed him.

After trying the unlock key about twenty times, we eventually found the teacher's car whose keys we had stolen.

We hopped in, Calvin driving, me in the passenger's seat.

After we got out of the parking lot, I overcame the shock of stealing a car.

"Ok, now that you're in control, where are we going?" I asked him.

"Camp Half-Blood. The only safe haven for kids like you."

"What do you mean kids like me? And what do you mean half-blood? Mrs. Scott called me that too."

"You're not normal Alyssa." We had stopped in front of my foster house. "Before I explain, go inside and pack your things, or at least as much as you can fit in a suitcase. I don't think you will be coming back here anytime soon."

I rushed inside. I don't know why, but I trusted Calvin on all this stuff. He seemed to know what he was doing. I rushed back outside five minutes later with a suitcase packed with all of my things from the house. I had written a quick note to my foster parents saying that I wouldn't be coming back.

I threw the suitcase in the backseat and got in the front. Calvin took off.

"Ok, I've trusted you so far, now answers," I demanded. "First, where are we going?"

"I told you. Camp Half-Blood. It's on Long Island," he replied.

That threw me off.

"Wait. Long Island? As in New York?"

"Yeah. Do you know any other Long Islands?"

I ignored his question.

"That's like five hours away!" We lived near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. New York City was not a short drive by any means.

"Yeah. Be glad you don't live in California. Then you would need to hitch a plane ride and who knows how many monsters would be on that."

"Ok." I tried to calm myself down. "You said 'kids like me.' What do you mean?" I asked.

"I'm sorry Lys. I lied to you about telling you after you were done packing. It's too dangerous right now. It will only increase your scent for the monsters. I promise I will explain everything once we get to camp."

"Ok," I said, "so what am I supposed to do for five hours then?"

"Uhh, sleep?" It was more of a question than a statement.

"Fine," I said. "Wake me up when we get there."

* * *

The second I fell asleep, the dream came.

I was standing in the middle of a park in what looked like an ancient Greek city, but how I knew that I wasn't sure.

As I looked around, everything I saw shone brightly as if it had just been built. Palace upon palace gleamed on the outskirts of the city. Marble roads led everywhere, and all of the roads eventually led up to the peak of a mountain, where the largest palace gleamed under the sun's rays.

There was a market filled with people wearing tunics and togas roaming the stalls and an amphitheater and a coliseum were located on each end of the market.

Taking my eyes off of the beautiful views of the city, I turned back towards the park where it looked like a concert was being held. There was a stage set up with a domed roof held up by Greek columns. Around one hundred people seemed to be anxiously awaiting the start of the concert.

Something seemed wrong though. Something was out of place. No instruments were set up on the stage and there were no musicians in sight. The second I thought this, a middle-aged man of around forty or fifty ran out onto the stage, looking frantic. He said something, but no words came out; at least none came to my ears. The other people waiting for the concert started whispering in hushed voices.

I might not have heard the guy, but I immediately knew what had happened. The musicians, whoever they were, were gone, and no one knew where they were.

Everyone started to panic. Several women screamed. People started to run around wildly.

I could feel my heart beginning to race.

Someone yelled my name. I looked around for the person who was calling me and I couldn't find them.

My heart was beating a hundred miles an hour by now.

I heard my name again. I turned back around and someone plowed into me. I was thrown into the ground and the dream dissolved.

* * *

"Alyssa!" Calvin yelled urgently, as if it was the second or third time he had yelled.

"What!" I yelled, annoyed.

"We're probably five minutes out, so I thought it was the time to wake you."

"You didn't have to yell," I said.

Calvin smiled.

"Hey, it worked didn't it?" He said, sounding relieved.

"Whatever. I thought we were being attacked again."

I thought about my dream. I couldn't decide whether it was real or not. In either case, it had scared me. The fact that the disappearance of musicians could cause that much havoc was very scary indeed.

After a couple minutes when I had calmed down, I finally got the chance to examine my surroundings. We were in the rural area of what I assumed was New York City. Farmland surrounded us for miles on almost every side. To our north, the way we were travelling, the landscape started to get hilly. Trees could be seen in the distance.

A thunderstorm surrounded us. We seemed to be right in the middle of it. Everything was dark due to the storm.

All of a sudden, an arrow smashed our windshield.

To make matters worse, our car got struck by lightning.

We flew off of the road and into a ditch.

The impact was jarring. My head slammed against the dashboard, something slashed my arm and my ankle was crushed against something hard.

I moaned from pain. I heard Calvin do the same.

When I finally regained my bearings, I felt blood dripping from my forehead. I had a huge gash on my left arm, and there was extreme pain in my right ankle. It was probably broken.

Calvin finally spoke, "Hey, you ok?"

_Not really,_ I thought.

"Yeah," I answered. "I think my ankle might be broken though."

"Yeah same. Except my arm might be broken, not my ankle."

"Ok, what happened?"

"Not sure. I think Zeus is mad at us though."

"What?" I asked, still not completely recovered. I wasn't sure if I had heard him right.

"Oh, I haven't explained that to you yet," he replied simply. "Come on, we only have to go to that hill." With his good arm he pointed to a hill in the distance.

"Ok," I said, still very confused. I let it go though.

We got out of the car rather slowly. I had to lean on Calvin heavily as I found I couldn't put much weight on my ankle.

We hadn't even made it a quarter of the way to the hill before an arrow flew past my ear.

"We're being attacked," Calvin shouted. "Get down!"

I obeyed, and instinctively took out the bronze knife that I still had from my math teacher's attack.

Our assailants finally came into view.

They looked like regular teenage girls. The only problem was that they had twin serpent tails instead of legs.

"Scythian dracaenae," Calvin stated. "Dragon women. We were so close too."

"Maybe we can fight our way out?" I asked hopefully.

Then I saw there were around fifteen of them; about half had swords.

_Yeah right, 15 on 2,_ I thought. And from what I saw of Calvin's fighting technique, I didn't think our chances of survival would be very high.

After being shot at with arrows another twenty times, the archers either ran out of arrows, or gave up. I hope it was the former.

I completely forgot about my broken ankle. I was going all on adrenaline.

By this time, the dracaenae with the swords were on top of us. Calvin and I tried to stick together, but we ended up separated after a couple of seconds.

I was fighting around four at once.

I didn't know what I was doing. The adrenaline kicked in. I was going all on instinct. I would slash at one, block another and duck a third.

I finally managed to stab one and it exploded in the same golden powder that Mrs. Scott did. However, once I killed one, two more took its place.

I took down two more and managed a quick glance over to Calvin to see how he was doing. He seemed to be holding his own against the dracaenae, though he didn't seem to be killing any of them.

After a while, there were only five dracaenae left; three on me and two on Calvin. The dracaenae seemed to figure out that I was the bigger threat.

I stabbed one in the arm and she vaporized. I turned just in time to block the second's attack, but this had left me vulnerable to the third.

I felt a blinding pain on my right side. I looked down to see the dracaenae pull her sword out of my side. Blood started to pour out of the wound. It was a very deep cut.

I dropped my knife.

I didn't register the fact that the rest of the dracaenae had been killed with arrows. I didn't register the fact that Calvin was screaming my name. I didn't register the fact that there were kids rushing down from the hill where the camp was.

I was too focused on my stab wound. The last thing I remember seeing before collapsing unconscious was a boy with black hair and sea green eyes sprinting towards me.

* * *

**A/N:**

**Ooh, what will happen to Lys? Will she die? (Well, obviously not, seeing as it's only chapter 2). Who's the black-haired boy? Why did the dracaenae attack Lys? Who's Lys's parent? Is her parent her mom or her dad? All of those questions (and more) will be answered **_**only**_** if you keep on reading.**

**Another short chapter. Sorry guys, but it was a good place to stop. The next chapter's about the same length, but then we get into the real chapters.**

**I forgot to mention this in chapter 1, but first person to accurately guess Lys's parentage earns virtual cookies! Isn't that great? Yes, I agree, actual cookies would be better, but alas I can only give out virtual cookies. Also, for chapter 2, virtual cookies go out to the first person to accurately guess the names of the musicians (it's really not that difficult). Good luck!**

**Finally, make sure you guys review, because I might just use some of your ideas in the coming chapters.**

**Thanks!**

**-Percy Son Of Neptune (PSON) **


	3. I Check Into Summer Camp

**III**

_Alyssa_

I Check Into Summer Camp

I woke up in what I would later learn was the infirmary to the sound of a familiar voice.

"Thank the gods you're awake!"

I opened my eyes to see Calvin and the black-haired boy I saw earlier. They were both wearing orange t-shirts that said CAMP HALF-BLOOD.

Now that I wasn't about to collapse from blood loss, I was able to take a better look at him. He looked to be around my age. His black hair was pretty messy, but it still managed to look cute on him. His sea green eyes reminded me of the ocean. He was a little taller than average height, and he was pretty well built.

"Here," he said. He handed me a glass filled to the brim with some sort of liquid.

"Drink it."

I took a sip.

It was amazing. Words couldn't describe what it tasted like, but if I had to say, I would say that it tasted like my mom's barbecue chicken that she would make back when I was really young. I don't know how I was able to remember that because I was also really young when she died, but somehow I did. I remember how she always was able to have the perfect amount of crisp on it, not too much so that it was burnt, not so little that the chicken wasn't completely cooked.

I missed both of my parents, but especially my mom. All I remember of her was that she was insanely beautiful. She had long auburn brown hair and her eyes always seemed like a fire was burning in them, because they were a soft red color, almost pale, but not quite.

I also remember how she could be two different people. She was one of those people who could be a kid all the time, but still take authority when they needed to.

My dad on the other hand, from what I was told, was like those cool college seniors that always would have time to hang around the freshmen. People always looked up to him. He was the star of his college's soccer team. He set a lot of the school records, and was the captain in both his junior and senior year.

I remember his short blond hair and his intense green eyes. His smile was one of those that could light up the whole room.

I probably could have gone on remembering my family memories, but Calvin brought me out of them.

"What did it taste like?" He asked.

For a second I wasn't sure what he was talking about. Then I remembered the drink that had tasted like my mom's chicken.

"Oh, sorry. I should have let you have a taste," I said.

"No, no. That's ok," Calvin replied quickly. "You needed it more than me anyway."

"Yeah, that was quite a stab wound," the black-haired boy said. "By the way, my name is Adonis Chase, but you can call me Adon." He winked at me.

I giggled, which is pretty strange for me.

He held out is hand.

I shook it somewhat weakly.

"Alyssa Ember, but you can call me Lys." I winked back.

Adon turned towards Calvin.

"Have you explained yet?"

"No, I thought it would be best to wait until we got to camp," Calvin replied. "I also think Cali should tell her. You know, girl to girl, and plus, she's the best at it."

"Well, her mother being the goddess of strategy kind of helps," Adon said.

"Wait," I said. "Who's Cali?"

"Calista Clark. She's a, let's say, good friend of ours, who practically knows everything," Adon responded.

"Well, she is a daughter of Athena," Calvin muttered under his breath, trying not to be heard.

"She's a what?" I asked, hearing him.

"Um, uh," Calvin stumbled.

"We should let her tell you," Adon said. "Can you get up?"

"I think so."

"Ok," he said. "Here, let me help you up."

He stretched out his hand and I took it.

As soon as I stood up my knees buckled, but Adon was there to catch me.

I blushed.

"Thanks," I said. "Sorry for landing on you there."

"What? Oh, uh, no problem," he said flustered.

I laughed.

"So," I said. "Am I going to actually meet this Cali person or are we just going to stand here awkwardly for the next few hours?"

"Uh, sure," Adon said. "You should probably meet with Chiron first though."

"Don't forget Mr. D," Calvin said.

"Oh, yeah," he replied. "A piece of advice when you meet him: don't take him seriously. He hates everyone here."

"Um, ok?" I said. That was a weird request.

"You'll know what I mean when you really meet him."

"Ok," I said. "Let's go."

After taking a couple of steps with help, I was able to walk by myself. We walked through a couple of doors and out onto a porch.

Unlike the day I got stabbed, this day was sunny and cloudless. You could hear the birds singing and water rushing. There was a small stream winding through the valley.

"Where did the thunderstorm go?" I asked.

"Lys," Calvin said, "You've been out for almost four days."

I looked at him not believing it. He nodded his head, and I returned my gaze to the scenery.

There was a large forest on the other side of the stream along with a huge strawberry patch. I wonder if that was all they ate here.

Looking around, the valley was surrounded by rolling hills, and the largest hill had a big pine tree on the top of it.

We continued to walk along the porch, which wrapped the whole way around the house.

When we got to the other side of the porch, I caught my breath.

From what it looked like, we had to be on the north side of Long Island, because the valley went right up to the water, which glittered about a mile in the distance.

Between here and there, I couldn't seem to process what I was seeing. Buildings that looked like Ancient Greek architecture dotted the landscape – a circular arena, an open-aired pavilion, and an amphitheater. The weird thing though, was that they all looked brand new, as if they were just built in the last couple of months.

About a dozen high school kids and satyrs played volleyball in a nearby sandpit. Some other kids with t-shirts like Calvin's and Adon's were chasing each other around some cabins next to the woods. Other kids were at an archery range practicing their shot or riding on what looked to be horses that had wings.

When we got to the end of the porch, I saw two men sitting across from each other at a card table. A girl with long blonde hair sat on the porch railing reading a book.

The man facing me was not very tall, and he was porky. He had curly black hair that almost looked purple, a red nose, and big watery eyes. He wore a tiger-pattern Hawaiian shirt, and looked like he had a drinking problem.

The other man was sitting in a wheelchair. His hair was thinning, and he had a scruffy beard. He had a frayed tweed jacket on.

"Oh, I guess I have to say it," the porky man said. "Welcome to Camp Half-Blood."

"Oh-kay," I replied half-heartily. Then I remembered Adon's warning. "You're Mr. D."

"Yes I am little girl, and I advise you to learn to respect your divine elders."

I thought, _Divine elders?_ I was going to ask this out loud, but before I could, Mr. D waved his hand and a goblet appeared on the table. It looked like the sunlight had bent and the air formed the goblet. The goblet filled itself with red wine.

The other guy, who I assumed was Chiron, said, "Mr. D, your restrictions."

There was thunder in the distance.

"Sorry," Mr. D said, seeming to direct the statement at the thunder, "Old habits."

Mr. D turned the wine glass into a Diet Coke can. The thunder stopped.

The guy who I assumed was Chiron turned towards me.

"Hello there," he said. "You must be Alyssa. My name is Chiron."

So I was right. "Um, hi. Why is-"

"Mr. D like this?" He asked.

I nodded.

"Mr. D went after a water nymph that was declared off-limits a while back, and offended his father."

"His father?" I asked. "Who's his father?"

"The better question is who is _your_ father, or your mother for that matter," Chiron replied.

I looked away ashamed. I didn't like talking about my parents with anyone, but especially people that I didn't know.

Chiron looked at me as if he expected an answer.

I finally gave in.

"Both of my parents are dead. They died when I was really young."

Mr. D laughed.

I immediately turned towards him flushed with anger. No one, and I mean no one, laughed at my parents.

I was about to punch him in his face when Chiron stopped me.

"Alyssa, don't." I had no problem with Mr. D, but I didn't think I wanted Chiron as an enemy. "I think an explanation is in order. Mr. D was not laughing at your parents, ah, passing. He just knows that you're lying."

I was about to protest that I wasn't lying, but Chiron held up his hand.

"Undoubtedly, you believe that you are telling the truth."

"But-" I started to say. Chiron held up his hand again.

"I'm not finished. You believe that you are telling the truth, because you have been living in the mortal world, the ignorant world, the world where everyone dies. This, unfortunately, involves one of your parents, but we are not sure whether it is your mother or father." I was about to ask what he meant, but he kept talking. "Before I answer any questions, I believe you should first learn the truth." He turned towards the blonde-haired girl. "Cali, if you could please show Alyssa the camp and explain everything that is necessary."

The blonde-haired girl stood up and walked over to me. She was about my height, maybe a little taller. She was maybe a year older than me. Her long blonde hair reached just past her shoulders. She was extremely beautiful, but her eyes threw her beauty off a little. They were startling grey, like storm clouds, and they were very intimidating.

"Sure, Chiron," she said with a smile. She held out her hand and I shook it. "I'm Calista Clark, but please call me Cali."

"Alyssa Ember," I replied, returning the smile. I liked this girl immediately. "Please call me Lys though."

"No problem Lys. Come on, let's get you checked into camp."

* * *

**A/N:**

**Ok, so this was sort of a filler chapter. The next chapter, however, is much longer, and we finally get a pov change. That should be interesting.**

**Make sure you guys review.**

**Thanks!**

**-PSON**


	4. Alyssa Learns The Truth

**IV**

_Calista_

Alyssa Learns The Truth

I was sitting on the porch railing next to Chiron and Mr. D reading my Ancient Greek textbook when Adon and Calvin walked up with a girl that I didn't know.

She looked to be around thirteen, a year younger than me, and around an inch or two shorter than me. She had bright green eyes and long auburn brown hair that reached her shoulders. She was simply pretty; not beautiful, not dazzling, just pretty.

She talked with Mr. D and Chiron for a while, so I went back to my book. I tuned back in when I heard Chiron say my name.

"Cali, if you could please show Alyssa the camp and explain everything that is necessary."

"Sure, Chiron," I said putting on my best smile. I held out my hand and the girl shook it. "I'm Calista Clark, but please call me Cali."

"Alyssa Ember," she replied, returning my smile. "Please call me Lys though."

I was beginning to like this new girl already.

"No problem Lys," I said. "Come on, let's get you checked into camp."

* * *

We walked off of the porch. I assumed that Chiron hadn't explained anything like always, so this girl probably had no clue what was going on.

This was going to be fun.

"So, Lys, how are you feeling right now?" I asked.

"I'm extremely confused. Chiron explained absolutely nothing," she replied.

So I was right.

"Yeah, he does that sometimes. He just likes to make me do all of the work."

"Do you always explain stuff for him?" She asked.

I laughed. "Yeah, basically."

"Ok."

"So, you probably have a million questions in your head now, right?"

"Yeah, nothing makes any sense to me."

"Ok," I said. "Fire away."

She grimaced for a second, and I thought I might have said something wrong, but it was gone as quick as it came.

"Ok," she said. "Why did Chiron say I was lying if I wasn't? My parents both died in a fire, and I remember going to their funerals, both of them."

"Oh, giving me a tough one, huh? Ok, let's start simple before we get complex. Have you learned Greek Mythology in school?"

She nodded her head. "Yeah, all of the Greek gods like Zeus, Poseidon, and Hestia."

"Correct," I said. "The Greek gods are one of the most well-known of all mythology. Many believe that's because they were the basis for other types of mythology, Roman for instance. However, this is incorrect. Greek Mythology is the most popular because these gods – the immortal Greek gods you learned in school – are alive and living in this world."

I waited for her reaction. Her face contorted, filled with confusion and then disbelief, as if she thought I was lying.

I continued, "I'm not lying. Calvin told me that you got hit by lightning on your way here. Can you remember what he said at this time?"

Realization dawned on her face. "He said, 'Zeus must be mad at us' or something like that," she said.

"Exactly-" I started to say, but Lys was on a roll.

"And when I woke up," she exclaimed, "Adon was telling me who you were and Calvin muttered something like 'she's a daughter of Athena.'"

I waited to make sure she was done.

"Yes I am, but I'll explain that later."

"But I don't get it. The Greek gods are myths, stories to explain nature and stuff."

"I know this is hard to believe, but immortal means immortal Lys. Those gods and goddesses are still alive today. They move with the West."

"The what?" She asked.

"The West. What humans call 'Western civilization.' It isn't just a concept. It's a living force, both indirectly and directly tied to the gods. The gods move with it, just like Greek Mythology turned into Roman Mythology. You could say it follows the most powerful spot on earth."

"What do you mean?" Lys asked.

"When the gods were first born, the most powerful spot on earth was Greece, and thus it's called Greek Mythology," I explained. "Then, the most powerful spot moved to Rome, and it became Roman Mythology. The gods then moved to Germany, France, Spain. They spent several centuries in England, and I think you can guess where they are now."

"Here," she said slowly. "They are in the US. They are in America."

"Yes, that's correct," I replied. "You know, Lys, you are taking this quite well."

"Really?" She asked.

I nodded my head.

"I guess it's just the fact that one of my parents is alive that keeps me believing this. It's been over ten years since I've seen either of them, and it would be so amazing just to see either of them again."

"Yeah, I can see where you're coming from. My dad is still alive, even though we're not on the best terms, but this isn't about me, it's about you. Come on, let's not stand by the porch the whole day. Let me show you the camp."

* * *

I led Alyssa towards the volleyball courts. I noticed that she had stopped and was looking around the area, so I took a look at the house that we had just come out of, the Big House, as the campers called it. When you see it for the first time, you are surprised how big it seems compared to the size of the inside of the house. It is four stories tall, painted pale green with white trim, with a brass weathervane shaped like an eagle. Overall, it looks like a normal seaside resort.

"This place is pretty cool," Lys said.

I laughed. "Girl, you haven't seen anything yet."

We started walking again, and I led her to the strawberry fields.

"What are these for?" She asked. "I hope we don't just eat strawberries here."

"No, Lys," I laughed, "These strawberries pay the camp's expenses. Mr. D has an effect on all fruit-bearing plants, and since he is restricted from growing wine grapes, which work best, we grow strawberries."

"What do you mean he has an 'effect' on them?" Lys asked.

"Didn't they explain this?" I asked. Lys shook her head. "I remember something being said about Mr. D's father though."

"Yeah, I asked who is father was, and nobody answered me."

"Ok, then how about I tell you who his father is, and you try to figure out who Mr. D is."

"Ok."

"Ready?" Lys nodded her head. "His father is Zeus," I said.

I could see the gears turning in her head. After a couple of seconds, she seemed to figure it out.

"Do you know who he is?" I asked.

"Dionysus, the god of wine," she stated. "So that's why he said to respect your divine elders."

I had absolutely no idea what she was talking about, but it must have occurred when I was zoning out during their conversation.

"Yes," I said. "That's correct."

"Mr. D is a god?" She asked out of disbelief.

"Yeah," I said. "But, just between you and me, and I think everyone else at camp would agree with me, Mr. D isn't that great of a god."

"Yeah, I agree with you. I don't like Mr. D a lot anyway," Lys said. "Can we keep moving? These strawberries are starting to creep me out."

I laughed. "Yeah, let's go."

I led Lys to the woods.

Most people, upon seeing the woods for the first time, are amazed by its size. The forest covers at least a quarter of the entire valley, and its trees are towering above you, as if they had been there since before the Civil War.

"Wow," Lys said. "It is a lot bigger when it's right on top of you."

"Yeah, we all know what you mean," I replied. "Just make sure that you are armed when you go in. The woods are stocked."

"Stocked with what?" Lys asked.

"You'll see," I said. "Cabin events are Tuesday, and capture the flag is Friday night."

"What are cabin events?"

"They are games and other events that you do with your cabin. I'll explain more when we get to the cabins."

"Ok, cool. Where do you guys play capture the flag?" Lys asked.

"In the woods," I said. "Where else would we play?"

"I don't know. So far I've only seen the house, the strawberry patch, and the woods, so I didn't know if there was anyplace else."

"Ok, that makes sense." I saw someone I knew down at the canoeing lake. "Come on, I want you to meet someone."

On the way down to the lake, we passed the stables which held the pegasi, or winged horses. Lys immediately wanted to ride one, but I told her we would need one of the teachers, and it would take a while to find one.

We continued down to the lake. There was a small pier that overlooked Long Island Sound. A girl with long light brown hair sat on the edge of the pier.

"Hey Ally!" I said to the girl.

She turned around, got up, and ran over towards me. We shared a hug for a couple seconds before she noticed Lys.

"Who's this?" She asked.

"Oh my gods I'm such a bad tour guide. Ally, meet Alyssa Ember. Lys, meet Allison Soto."

"Howdy," Ally said.

I rolled my eyes. Ally was such a southern girl.

"Hey," Lys said. "Nice to meet you."

"Ditto," Ally replied.

"Ally, seriously," I said. "The girl just met you and you're going all crazy on her."

"Sorry, Cali."

"Ah, forget it."

Ally's next question surprised me.

Although, it wasn't directed at me, it was directed at Lys.

"So, Lys, right?" Lys nodded. "What's your parentage?"

"What?"

"Ally!" I said. "I haven't explained that yet."

"Well, do you want me to help?"

"Fine," I said. "I was going to wait a little longer, but go ahead."

"So, Lys," she started, "what do you know so far?"

"I found out that one of my parents is alive, the Greek gods are real, and Mr. D is Dionysus."

"So," Ally dragged out the _o_, "Cali didn't hit any of the good parts. That's good, because I get to explain them."

I rolled my eyes again.

Ally continued, "Where should I start?"

"How about you start with the fact that she's a child of one of the Olympians, and that she has powers no other mortal child has, et cetera," I said sarcastically.

"No, that's too straight forward," Ally replied.

"Wait a minute," Lys said. "What is this about me being a child of an Olympian?"

"Ok, Lys," I said, reasserting my authority as tour guide. "Can you tell me what the gods would do most of the time back in the Ancient Greek stories?"

"Um, I don't know, fight?" She guessed.

"Not quite." I paused. "Well, technically yes, but that wasn't what I was looking for. See if this rings a bell: the gods would go around and fall in love with mortals."

"Yeah, I remember that from somewhere," Lys said. "What does that have to do with me though?"

"Remember when Chiron said you were lying?" Lys nodded. "This is where that comes in. Both of your parents couldn't have died in that fire because one of them can't die," I said, trying to make her get it.

"I don't follow," she said.

"Well, let's see-"

"Oh, come on Cali! Why won't you just say it!" Ally yelled.

Ally turned towards Lys.

"Lys, one of your parents is an Olympian."

"An Olympian?" She asked, still confused.

"Yes, Lys," I said. "One of your parents is a Greek god."

I expected her to be speechless, like I was when I found out my mom was a goddess. And she was for a couple of seconds, but then she asked a question I couldn't answer.

"Who?"

"We don't know. It could be anyone for you since you don't know which one of your parents it is. The only way to find out is if they claim you."

"Claim me?" She asked.

"Yeah, they send some sort of message, telling the camp that you are their child."

"When will that happen?"

"It depends on the situation," Ally explained. "Most gods will claim you in front of the whole camp, but some will do it personally, when you are only with a couple of people."

"Yeah," I said. "For instance, I got claimed in front of the whole camp, but Ally got claimed when she was only with me."

"Oh, cool," Lys said. "So, if I remember correctly, your mother is Athena?"

"Yep," I said. "Goddess of wisdom and battle strategy."

"So Ally, who is your parent?" Lys asked.

"Aphrodite," she said proudly. "Goddess of love and beauty."

"Oh, that's really cool," Lys said. "You really look like one of her kids too."

Indeed, Ally was the typical Aphrodite girl. Her long light brown hair reached her shoulders. Her blue eyes sparkled like a clear summer day. She was the perfect height for a fifteen year old girl; not extremely tall, and not extremely short. And of course, she was one of the most beautiful girls at camp. That's basically a given with the Aphrodite girls.

"Why thanks, Lys," Ally replied. "I hope you are my half-sister. You're pretty good looking yourself."

"Thanks Ally."

"No problem. Hey, I have to head off to my cabin, so I'll see you guys at dinner?"

"Yeah, sure Ally. See you around," I said.

After Ally left Lys turned towards me.

"You're an Athena girl, and they are supposed to be smart, right, so who do you think my parent is?"

"So, first off thanks for being stereotypical," I laughed when her face dropped a little. "I'm just kidding. And as for your parent, I really have no idea, because it could be anyone. I have some ideas, but I really can't be sure."

"Well, who are your ideas? I might feel some connection if you say the right name."

"Well, I really don't see how you can have a connection when I just say a name, but we can give it a shot," I said. "Ok, let's see. We can eliminate Hera, Artemis and Hestia because they are all virgin goddesses and would never have kids. That at least narrows it down a little. I was thinking possibly Apollo, Aphrodite, or maybe Athena. I think it would be cool if you were my half-sister. But then again, there are many other possibilities, so it's basically impossible to say until they claim you."

"Well, thanks for trying anyway."

"No problem Lys," I said. "Glad I could help."

"Yeah, so what's the next place on the tour?" She asked.

"I'm glad you asked. Come on, let's go see the archery range."

When we got to the archery range, we saw three people, one guy and two girls, practicing. The three of them were clearly siblings. They all had blond hair; short blond hair for the guy, and long blonde hair pulled into a ponytail for the two girls. The guy was the oldest, at sixteen years old. The two girls were around the same age, one fourteen, the other a couple months younger.

"Hey guys," I called in-between shots. "I want you to meet someone."

All three of them shouldered their bows and made their way over to us.

"Hey Cali, who's this?" The guy said.

"This is Alyssa Ember. She goes by Lys though," I told them.

"Nice to meet you Lys. I'm Colin Mitchell, this is Daphne Parker and this is Crystal Fox." He pointed to each of them in turn.

"Nice to meet you three. Let me guess, your parent is Apollo?" Lys guessed.

"Well, those two are Apollo, but my dad is Hephaestus," Colin said with a smile.

"Oh, shut up Colin," Crystal said shoving him on his shoulder. "Don't listen to him, he's a child of Apollo too, he just likes to show off."

Crystal was the youngest, but acted older than her age.

Daphne smiled, "He's more of a Hermes kid though, all he does is joke around."

"Yeah, whatever. So who's your parent Lys?" Colin said after recovering from his shove.

"I don't know," she said.

"Well, is it your mom or dad?"

"We're not sure," I told them. "Her other parent died when she was really young."

"Oh, ok. Well I hope it's Apollo. You would make a pretty cool sister Lys."

"Thanks," Lys replied.

"Well, we need to finish practicing and shower before dinner, so we'll see you around guys," Colin said.

"Ok, see you Colin. Bye Daphne and Crystal," I said.

"See you," they said.

We walked out of the archery range. I quickly showed Lys the javelin range, but since no one was there, we kept moving.

We walked to the forge where a few Hephaestus kids were forging some weapons.

Lys looked confused, so I helped by explaining, "The Hephaestus kids work on swords and other things here. You learn some things from them, but they basically make all of the weapons."

"Oh, that's kind of cool. Did they make my knife?" Lys asked, pulling out her knife.

"Most likely," I replied. "Come on, I don't think we can meet anyone right now."

I quickly showed Lys the arts-and-crafts room, and then we continued onto the climbing wall.

Whatever you think of when I say climbing wall, it isn't enough.

The climbing wall is fifty feet high, with two facing walls that drop boulders, spray lava, and clash together if you don't get to the top fast enough. They also shake violently the whole time you are trying to climb to the top.

"That's awesome!" Lys exclaimed. "Can I try?"

"Yeah, but not right now. Let's finish the tour first," I replied.

"Ok," Lys said, sounding kind of sad.

"Don't worry, you'll get plenty of tries to fail on it later."

"Ok, where to next?" Lys asked.

I laughed. This girl was having such a good time.

It was pretty clear that it had been quite a while since Lys had been this happy. No one could have guessed that by the end of the tour, this same girl would be the happiest she had ever been in her life.

* * *

**A/N:**

**Hey, what did you guys think? The next chapter is kind of short, but we get our second godly presence (behind Mr. D, who doesn't really count).**

**Question of the chapter: Who's Lys's parent? Apollo, Aphrodite, or Athena? Or maybe none of them?**

**Answer with who you think it is and who you want it to be. Creative answers might get a shout-out in the next chapter.**

**Make sure to review!**

**Thanks!**

**-PSON**


	5. Someone Says Too Much

**V**

_Calista_

Someone Says Too Much

After visiting the climbing wall, I led Lys past the circular amphitheater where I explained that we held sing-alongs and other important events there, and took her to the mess hall.

"Why isn't there a roof?" Lys asked.

"We don't need a roof," I explained.

"Why though?" Lys asked. "The only thing there is an outdoor pavilion that has weird-looking columns and a few picnic tables. What do you do if it rains?"

"Well, first off Lys," I explained, "those are Greek columns and there are twenty-two picnic tables there, one for each of the cabins and one for Chiron, Mr. D and any other special guest that we might have that night. And to answer your question, we don't need a roof for when it rains because it doesn't rain here. The valley is protected, so bad weather goes around us. Occasionally, a little snow will be allowed into the valley during winter, but most of the weather will just pass around us."

"Oh," Lys said, "I guess that makes sense."

"Yeah, you'll learn how things work around here pretty fast once you get into the flow of things," I said. "By the way, the summer session of camp officially starts tomorrow, so you'll quickly meet a lot of different people."

"Cool. Is there like a set schedule we have to follow, or can we just do whatever?"

"There's a set schedule, but there are a couple sections of free time that you can use to work on anything you want."

"That's cool," Lys said. "Hey, how much more tour do we have? I'm getting kind of hungry."

I laughed. "Don't worry Lys, we don't have much more to go and dinner is in an hour."

"Nice. Shall we continue?"

"Yeah," I said. "We only need to make one more stop at the sword arena and then we can get you checked into your cabin."

The walk to the arena wasn't that long of a walk, but I managed to learn a little bit more about Lys. Her favorite color is red, and she doesn't like swimming very much. She's been in many different foster families and has had many different foster siblings, but her favorite foster sibling ever was the freshman sister from her last foster family. The only sport she was ever any good at was soccer (she told me her dad was a star in college), and she always liked to go to her school's dances, even though she never really danced with anyone at them.

We walked into the sword arena and I saw that Casey, Monica, and Sam were there. Casey and Sam didn't notice our approach since they were practicing against each other, but Monica did and waved us over.

"Come on Lys, I want you to meet these guys," I said.

"Hey Cali, who's this?" Monica asked once we had reached her.

"This is Alyssa Ember, but she goes by Lys." I turned to Lys. "Lys, this is Monica Torres, she's a daughter of Athena like me."

"Yep, we're awesome half-sisters," Monica said, putting her arm around my shoulders.

Monica is basically my twin. We look alike, as all Athena kids do, we hang around each other all the time, and to make things better, we were born only five days apart – April 29th and May 4th.

By this time, Casey and Sam had finished their duel and had come over.

"Hey, Cali. Nice to see you again," Sam said.

Sam has sleek, long black hair that just covers his ears. He is somewhat tall for a fifteen year old, and always seems to wear dark clothes, whether they be black, dark blue, or dark green.

Casey is of average height for a sixteen year old. She has electric blue eyes that look like lightning bolts and short black hair.

They noticed Lys. "And who might this be?" Sam asked.

"Alyssa Ember, but she goes by Lys. Lys, meet Sam Knight, son of Hades, and Casey Jones, daughter of Zeus and basically the leader of Camp Half-Blood."

"Leader in all but name," Casey said with a smile. "It's nice to meet you Lys."

"Nice to meet you too," Lys replied, returning the smile.

"So, who's your parent Lys?" Sam asked.

"I don't know yet," she replied.

"It could be anyone," I said. "We're not sure whether it's her mother or father. One of them died when she was really young."

"Oh, we're sorry to hear that Lys," Casey said.

"It's ok. Thanks anyway."

"We should probably get going," I said. "We still need to get you into a cabin before dinner."

We said goodbye to Monica, Casey and Sam and left the arena.

As we walked towards the cabins, I explained to Lys that there were originally twelve cabins, one for each of the major gods, but we had since expanded them to include Hades, Hestia and the minor gods, which now gave us a total of twenty-one.

We walked into the cabin area through the two biggest and most important cabins. The one on our right, cabin number 1, was the biggest of the twenty-one cabins. It was painted light blue like the sky and had a gray roof that resembled storm clouds. Cabin number 2 on our left was slightly smaller than cabin 1, but still larger than the rest of the cabins. Cabin 2 was painted pure white, and was uninhabited.

"Zeus and Hera?" Lys guessed.

"Yeah," I replied. "You can only have the best for the kids of the King and Queen of Olympus."

"Why does Hera's look like it doesn't have anybody living there?"

"That's because no one lives there. Hera doesn't have kids. She's the goddess of marriage, so she wouldn't go around and have kids with mortals. That's her husband's job." Thunder rumbled in the distance. "Oh come on Zeus. You know it's true," I said, looking at the clouds.

Lys was giving me a weird look, but I just shrugged it off. I was about to turn and leave when something, or more correctly, someone, shimmered and appeared before me.

He was wearing his normal pinstripe three piece suit, with his navy blue tie. His electric blue eyes shone like his daughter's and his sleek black hair was combed neatly.

I looked over at Lys, who was staring wide-mouthed at the guy who had just appeared out of nowhere. She gave me a look of confusion. I mouthed _watch _and turned to face the guy.

"So?" I said.

"So, what?" He replied.

"What are you going to do?" I said. "I mean, other than stare at me like you want to zap me with lightning, which I already know you want to do."

"I would too, if your mother didn't like you so much."

"Yeah, that still doesn't explain why you're here Zeus."

I sneaked a glance towards Lys. Her face was filled with recognition.

Zeus noticed my glance. "And this is?"

"Alyssa Ember," I said. "Lys, meet Lord Zeus."

"Another Ember, eh?" Zeus said. "Aaron's sister?"

Thunder rumbled in the distance, which is weird since Zeus is the one who is supposed to control the thunder.

Zeus gave a glance to the skies.

"Looks like I've said too much. I'll see you around Calista. Don't think I've forgotten what you said. And Alyssa, safe travels on your search." And with that he began to glow.

"Lys, look away!" I yelled.

And with that, the king of the gods showed his true form and returned to his palace on Olympus.

* * *

**A/N:**

**Ok, wow. I did not realize how short this chapter was. Sorry about that guys. I promise you that the next chapter is much longer and filled with much more action. The name of the next chapter is Alyssa Has Two Family Reunions. I'll leave it to you to figure out what that means.**

**I realized something today. As I was writing my other story, which debuts August 2nd, I realized that Microsoft Word 2010 does not recognize Annabeth as a word. How absurd is that? It was probably designed by a child of Arachne, those eight-legged fools.**

**Anyway, the name of my other story is The Princess and the Peasant. It's a Percabeth story. I'll give you the description.**

**'AU. Annabeth is a princess. Percy is a peasant. Or so he thinks. When he notices her during a swordfighting lesson, he can't help but feel awestruck. When she notices him on her vacation to Wales, she can't help but feel alone. When they finally meet, will love bloom? Or will life throw a curve in their paths? Follow Percabeth on their fight through angst and adversity.'**

**Remember, look for it on August 2nd.**

**Now, question of the chapter: Who is your favorite and least favorite character in the PJO series and why?**

**Again, creative answers might get a shoutout.**

**Don't forget to review!**

**Thanks!**

**-PSON**


	6. Alyssa Has Two Family Reunions

**VI**

_Calista_

Alyssa Has Two Family Reunions

Lys turned towards me. "Was that really _the _Zeus?"

"The one and only, unfortunately," I replied.

"Ok, question. Who's this Aaron kid?" She asked.

"I really have no idea, and that doesn't happen often. Apparently you're his sister?" It was more of a question than a statement.

"I don't know. I've always thought I was an only child, but now I'm seriously starting to doubt that. And what was that about a search?"

"Not sure. Only thing I can think of is you're going to have to go on some sort of search sometime soon."

"Great," Lys said sarcastically. "I love searches."

"Let's deal with that later, when we know more."

"Yeah, let's continue the tour. I don't want to be late for dinner."

I laughed. "Come on, let's see the rest of the cabins."

Cabin 3 was basically a beach house, cabin 5 looked like an armory, cabin 7 was an archer's heaven, and cabin 9 was a smaller version of the camp forge.

"Poseidon, Ares, Apollo, and Hephaestus?" Lys guessed.

"Correct. You're pretty good at this Lys."

"I've always had an interest in Greek Mythology. I guess I know why now."

"Yeah, we're kind of drawn to it, I guess."

By this time we had reached cabin 11, the Hermes cabin.

"Ok Lys," I said, "this is where you'll stay until your parent claims you…" I trailed off, because I noticed she wasn't looking at me.

Lys was looking at the firepit, where normally a little auburn-haired girl of around 8 or 9 years old would be tending the flame. People usually don't pay attention to her, but today I was. Instead of that 8 or 9 year old girl sitting by the fire, it looked like that same girl had suddenly aged seventeen years and was now twenty-five.

I looked over at Lys. She had tears coming down her face.

"Mom?" She said quietly to no one in particular.

I looked back at the young woman. As if sensing that Lys was talking about her, she turned her head and looked right in our direction.

"Mom!" Lys exclaimed, and she took off towards the woman.

There were about five or six other people in the clearing at the time, and they all stopped to watch.

I couldn't move. I watched awestruck as Lys jumped into the woman's outstretched arms and embraced her in a hug.

When I was finally able to move, I walked slowly over to them.

"Sit down Lys," I heard the woman say. "We need to talk." She turned towards me. "Cali, you may join us. It will answer some of your questions."

I sat down next to Lys, awestruck once more. "Lys, who is this?"

"My mom," she said simply.

I looked at her and then back at the woman. I saw the similarities. The auburn brown hair, the body stature, the way they hold themselves when they walk. It was all similar.

"Ok, ladies, we need to talk," Lys's mom said. We both looked at her. "Alyssa, I am your mother." She paused. "Do you know who I am?"

"I-I don't know," she stuttered, ashamed.

"Cali? I'm amazed you haven't figured out who I am yet. You're a smart girl."

I blushed. People don't compliment me often. "Um, I really don't know."

"Well, I'm going to have to report that to your mother. My niece is not going to be happy."

Niece? So this person was my mother's aunt? That makes her what, my great-aunt? My mind flew through the Greek family tree. Which goddess would be considered my mother's aunt?

Then, I knew the answer. I knew who was standing before me. How could I be so stupid? She's tending the fire. Tending the hearth.

"Hestia?" She nodded.

Then something I said earlier hit me like a ton of bricks.

But Lys beat me to it.

"Wait," she said, turning towards me, "I thought you said Hestia was a virgin and didn't have kids."

"I did," I replied, very confused.

We both turned towards Lady Hestia.

"I see you've figured that out. Like I said, you're both smart kids," she started. "As long as I've lived, I had never broken that oath." She paused, turning towards Lys. "Then I met your father at Syracuse. I had been able to uphold that oath for thousands of years, but something with him broke me. He was the best guy I had ever met. He's the only guy I've ever fallen in love with. He's the only guy I _will_ ever fall in love with. I remember thinking that I shouldn't be doing this, not only with me being a goddess, but having my oath of a virgin and pledging to have no kids. We graduated together two years later. One night I loved him a little too much, I guess, and nine months after that we had beautiful twin babies."

"Twins?" Lys said. "So I actually have a brother named Aaron?"

"Yes Lys," she replied with a shy smile.

"Why haven't I known about him? Why don't I remember him? I mean, I remember you and dad fine."

"I have no idea why you don't remember him, Lys. The four of us lived together until the fire, but after that I was forced to choose between you and your brother. Zeus said one of you could stay with me on Olympus. He wouldn't let me keep both of you, no matter how hard I tried to convince him to let me. I couldn't choose between you two, so Zeus did for me." She paused. "Aaron may have lived with me, but I never forgot you Lys. I kept watch over you that entire time, no matter what. Zeus might have been able to physically take my baby girl away from me, but he could never take away my power to protect you."

Lys looked shocked. Eventually, she asked, "If Aaron lived on Olympus, how come he didn't come and find me?"

"He never knew about you, I guess. He must have forgotten you just like you forgot him. I always thought you knew about each other."

"Well, then why didn't you two come down and at least visit me?"

"I couldn't Lys. The Fates forbid direct contact. The only person who could have contacted you was your brother, and since he couldn't remember you, I guess he didn't know you existed."

Lys paused before answering. "So basically my whole life was a lie?"

Lady Hestia shook her head.

"After you two were born, I tried to stay with you two and your father, but the Fates forbid direct contact for a reason. I managed it for just over a year, but then the fire happened." Hestia started to cry. "I tried to stop it, but my powers somehow betrayed me. I was able to get you two out, but by the time I could stop the fire, your father was gone. I never told him who I really was." She broke down crying.

Lys went to comfort her mother. I sat there, basically in shock. I couldn't believe what I just heard.

"That's…unbelievable," I said eventually. "I can't believe that happened to your family, Lys."

"I never knew either, Cali," she said quietly. It seemed like she was on the verge of tears herself.

I got up and gave her a hug. I knew from then on I would always stand by Lys. I mean, how could I not after hearing her family's life story like that?

We stood there for about five minutes, me comforting Lys, and Lys comforting her mother.

"We should probably get her to her cabin now," Hestia said, once she was recovered from her story.

Lady Hestia led the way, while Lys and I walked behind her in silence.

We made it to the cabin. Hestia gave me a look, and I understood that I should resume the tour session.

"Lys, welcome to your new home, cabin 14. As far as I know, no one has been in it." I looked at Lady Hestia for conformation.

"Only one person, actually. Your brother Aaron was here," she said calmly, directing the statement at Lys.

That surprised me. "If Aaron visited, how come I didn't know about it?" I asked. I basically knew every new camper that visited camp and I didn't remember anything about a kid named Aaron visiting the Hestia cabin.

Lady Hestia turned to me. "The only people that knew about the visit were Chiron and Lord Dionysus. I think we timed it so the rest of the campers were playing capture the flag. That way we could get in and out without anyone else noticing."

"Oh," was all I could say.

After an awkward silence, Hestia finally suggested that we go into the cabin.

We turned back towards the cabin. I really only passed by here when I needed to go to the other cabins, so I had really never taken a look at it.

Cabin 14 was a plain brown cabin, with a simple thatched roof. There were two windows on either side of the door and a small porch.

"Go ahead Lys," I said. "You deserve to be the first one in."

Lys opened the door and walked in. I followed her, and Lady Hestia brought up the rear, closing the door behind her.

The inside of the cabin was simple, just like the outside. Three beds surrounded the three other walls, with a small bathroom in the back. In the middle of the room stood a small hearth, which brightened with the entrance of Alyssa and the goddess. In plain words, it looked absolutely nothing like my cabin. It was weird for me, but I could tell Lys liked it.

"This is really cool," Lys said tentatively. "Cali, is your cabin like this?"

"No," I said automatically. "Not at all. Your cabin is so much different than mine."

"Really?" Lys asked.

"Yeah," I replied.

"Well, I should probably get going," Lady Hestia said. Lys gave her a hug goodbye. As she turned to leave, she seemed to remember something. "Oh, I almost forgot. Formalities."

I was confused for a second, but then Lady Hestia waved her hand and a small holographic fire appeared over Lys's head. The symbol of Hestia.

Lys looked confused, so I explained for her.

"She's officially claiming you," I said. "She could say she's your parent forever, but until the symbol appears above your head, it's not official that you're her child."

"Yes, that's a good way to put it," Lady Hestia said.

"Oh, ok. That makes sense," Lys said.

"Well, I'll take my leave then. Bye Cali. Bye Lys."

"Bye Lady Hestia," I said.

"Bye mom," Lys replied.

After Lady Hestia had walked out of the door, I turned towards Lys, who was taking in her surroundings.

"Hey, you good?" I asked.

"Yeah," she replied.

"Ok, well, let's get your suitcase from the Big House and bring your stuff here. Then we can continue the tour."

"Ok, let's do that."

Fifteen minutes later, when Lys had most of her things put away, she turned towards me.

"Ready to continue?" She asked.

"Yeah, let's go."

We walked back through the cabins, except we were going backwards this time. We passed by Cabin 12, which pretty much looked like a normal cabin, except for the vines crawling up and down the sides of the cabin.

"Dionysus?" Lys guessed, but there was a hint of disgust in her voice.

"Wow, someone's a hater," I said with a laugh. "But you're right."

Lys didn't say anything back, so we kept walking. As we were nearing Cabin 10, I noticed the door was open, so I held my breath. Lys was beside me and immediately started gagging and coughing.

"What is that?" She asked between coughs.

"That," I replied, trying not to breathe, "is the aroma of too much makeup."

Cabin 10 was a pure pink cabin and lights were on in every window. As we stood there a blond guy of about seventeen walked right up and into the cabin without any sign of discomfort.

I led Lys outside the range of the horrible aroma and finally took a breath.

"Whose cabin is that?" Lys asked.

"Isn't it obvious?" I asked. "It's Aphrodite, goddess of love and beauty."

"And too much makeup," Lys replied. "How does Ally live there?"

"She's bred to be able to," I said. "I went in there once and almost died, it's that bad."

We moved onto Cabin 8 which was basically a twin to Cabin 7. Cabin 8 looked like an ordinary cabin, other than the fact that it had a slight silver glow to it in the descending sun. I knew that by the time the moon was up, it would turn completely silver with the glow of the moon.

"Ok Lys, this one's a little tough."

"Artemis?" She guessed.

I blinked, surprised. "Wow, first try. Nice job," I said. "I guess we can move on then."

"Um, question," Lys said.

"Yeah?"

"Is Artemis actually a virgin goddess?"

"Yeah. Well, she has her Hunters, but no actual kids. The cabin's an honorary thing."

"Hunters?" Lys asked, confused.

"The Hunters follow Artemis around and hunt with her. They are girls like between 10 and 16, I guess, and they're immortal unless they fall in battle." Lys's face lit up at this. "But they have to be just like Artemis. You know, maidens for eternity, or else they lose their immortality and are kicked out of the Hunt."

"What do you mean maidens for eternity?"

"No boys. They can't fall in love. They can't date. They have to pledge to be like Artemis forever." Lys's face dropped at this comment. "That just shattered your dreams, didn't it?" Lys nodded her head. I laughed. "C'mon, let's keep moving."

We moved onto Cabin 6, my pride and joy. Cabin 6 was an inventor's heaven, a thinker's heaven, and a sketcher's heaven all rolled into one. It was painted silver, and had plain white curtains. A Hephaestus kid had carved an owl on the door when it was built, and the door was propped open. Inside you could see kids working on workbenches and reading scroll after scroll.

I turned to Lys. "If you get this one wrong, I'm going to have to kill you."

"This is your cabin."

"Yep, Cabin 6." Lys looked relieved to have gotten the answer right. I smirked at the thought.

"Keep going?" Lys asked.

"Yeah, only one more."

We moved onto Cabin 4, the last of the major cabins. Cabin 4 was a brown cabin whose outsides looked like tree bark. The roof was literally made of grass, and several flowerboxes full of different types of flowers were placed on every windowsill.

"Demeter?" Lys guessed.

"Yeah, nice job," I said.

"Thanks. Now what?"

"Well, dinner's in like twenty minutes, and I still need to explain to you what cabin events are, but we can do that someplace else. Other than that though, we're pretty much done with the tour."

"Oh, ok then."

We were about to walk over to the pavilion to take a seat until dinner when the door to the Demeter cabin opened and a girl who I recognized as Jenn Wagner walked out. I said a quick 'hi' and then turned back around, ready to take off towards the pavilion when Lys spoke.

"Jenn?"

"Lys?" Jenn replied, surprised. "What are you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same question," Lys replied as they embraced each other in a hug.

"What's going on?" I asked, very confused. "How do you two know each other?"

"Cali, Jenn's my foster sister."

* * *

**A/N:**

**So, I got you on the two family reunions, huh?**

**What did you think? Are you surprised? Shocked? Maybe angered? Tell me. I appreciate the feedback.**

**In the next chapter we finally get a quest! But who gets it? And what's the quest about?**

**The only way to find out is if you read on.**

**Now, question of the chapter: Where are you from? Are you American? German? An Icelander?**

**I personally am an American from the great state of Pennsylvania.**

**Make sure you guys review!**

**Thanks!**

**-PSON**


	7. We Get The News

**VII**

_Jennifer_

We Get The News

I was feeling great. I had just completed my freshman year of high school only three days ago and the next day I had arrived at the best place in the world, Camp Half-Blood. The first day was kind of annoying, because almost none of my cabinmates were at camp yet, so I was glad that both Summer and Aryana had shown up Sunday morning, a day before the start of the summer session.

Summer Anderson and Aryana Woods are two of my sisters from the Demeter cabin. They are also my best friends at camp. Summer is sixteen years old and the head councilor for the Demeter cabin. Summer is the 'common girl' at the camp. She has long brown hair and brown eyes and wears normal clothes all the time; a t-shirt, skinny jeans, and a pair of sneakers every day unless it's really hot, and then she'll wear shorts. Summer is so common, her nickname at camp literally is 'the common girl.' Summer likes to argue that there are other campers who have brown hair and brown eyes, and we concede that point to her. However, we argue back that no one in camp has as brown of brown hair or as brown of brown eyes as Summer has. Plus, no one dresses the same way she does. At least no one dresses as common as she does as much as she does.

Aryana on the other hand has long brown hair that is always in a ponytail and bright blue eyes. Like me, she's fifteen years old and she lives with her dad. She's from Seattle, so her skin is pretty pale, as it always rains there. Aryana loves wearing dresses and is always talking about makeup. She's always commenting on which boys at camp are cute or hot or whatever, so we call her the 'love mix-up in the West,' because she acts like an Aphrodite kid even though her mother is Demeter.

They both arrived at camp together on the camp shuttle from the airport. When they arrived, I gave them both a big hug and helped them take their luggage down to our cabin.

By the time they had gotten all of their clothes unpacked and put away ready for the summer session it was time for lunch. The three of us quickly ate lunch and headed back to the cabin. We traded stories from our school year for a long time when I realized how much time had passed. It was twenty minutes until dinner.

"Oh my gods, look at the time," I said.

"Yeah, so?" Summer asked.

"I still have to go feed Snowball before dinner," I replied. Snowball is my pure white pegasus. I am the only demigod in the Demeter cabin to own a pegasus.

"Oh come on Jenn," Aryana said. "Snowball will be fine. Keep talking with us."

"You know I always feed him before dinner Ari," I said while I got up.

"Yeah, but you've probably gone and seen him like twenty times already. We just got here today." She was right of course. I had basically visited him every hour until they came. I wasn't going to tell her that though.

"Yeah, well, I won't be able to see him any more if I don't feed him."

"Fine, abandon your friends."

I turned to Summer, ignoring Aryana's last comment. "I'll meet you guys at dinner. You don't have to wait for me to come back."

"Ok, we'll see you then Jenn."

I grabbed my bag of sugar cubes from by bedside dresser and headed out the door. When I reached the other side, however, I was surprised by what I saw. I immediately recognized Cali Clark and she was obviously just ending up a tour for a new girl who looked utterly familiar. She had auburn brown hair and looked to be around thirteen years old. Cali said a quick 'hi' to me and I was about to return it when the auburn-haired girl turned around. We recognized each other almost immediately.

"Jenn?" The auburn-haired girl asked.

"Lys?" I replied, surprised. "What are you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same question," Lys replied and we embraced each other in a hug for about three seconds before Cali intervened.

"What's going on?" She asked, sounding very confused. "How do you two know each other?"

"Cali, Jenn's my foster sister," Lys said. I smiled.

"What? No way," Cali said.

"That's exactly what I'm thinking right now," I said. "I live with you for nine months as your foster sister and I never even thought about you being a demigod, Lys."

"Yeah, it's pretty crazy. I didn't even know until a few hours ago either. I'm assuming your mother is Demeter?" Lys posed it as a question.

"Yeah," I replied proudly. "Goddess of agriculture."

"That's cool."

"I know," I said. "Do you know who your parent is yet?"

Lys smiled. "Yeah, I do. My mom's Hestia. I'm a daughter of the hearth."

My mind went blank.

"Wait, what?" I asked.

Lys sighed. She turned towards Cali. "I'm going to get that a lot, aren't I?"

Cali smiled. "Yeah, probably."

"Great, this just gets better and better."

"Wait," I said. "So your mom actually is Hestia?"

"Yeah, you don't believe me?"

"No, it's not that, it's just," I paused. "Isn't she a virgin goddess?"

"Yeah, she is," Lys replied. "Let me just say this Jenn. It's a very long story, so let me tell you some other time ok? Maybe after dinner today you can come over to my cabin and we can talk."

"Ok." I let it go for now. "We should do that." We were standing outside my cabin for around five minutes, and I almost forgot what I was doing. "Oh wow. Hey, I need to go feed Snowball before dinner, so I'll see you two around, ok?"

"Who's Snowball?" Lys asked.

"He's my pegasus." I thought for a second. "Actually, if you want to meet him, you could come along, Lys. You too, Cali."

"Oh, definitely," Lys said. She looked back at Cali.

"I might as well come too," Cali said. "I still need to explain cabin events to Lys anyway."

"Oh, well that's easy," I said. "That'll take no more than two minutes."

We headed off towards the stables. Along the way, Cali explained to Lys what cabin events are.

"Ok, so cabin events," Cali started. "Cabin events are events that you do with your cabin, obviously. There are various events that win your cabin points based on how well you do in the event relative to the other cabins. The points are tallied up at the end of each month and the cabin with the most points wins the ultimate prize."

"What's the ultimate prize?" Lys asked.

"No chores for the entire next month," Cali said. "That's a really big deal here at camp. Anyway-"

"Wait. What do I do? I'm the only one in my cabin. Doesn't that put me at a disadvantage?" Lys asked.

"Well, that depends on the event, Lys. As I was about to say earlier, each cabin does the event with their cabinmates. However, with cabins of three or less people, they may either choose to join up with a larger cabin to complete the event, or choose to complete the event on their own, which sometimes is the better choice. When a smaller cabin joins with a bigger cabin, they act as if they are one single cabin. If that team wins ten points for a certain event, both cabins receive ten points for the overall standings. The points aren't split five and five. That wouldn't be fair for the larger cabin."

"Wait, you said for cabins of three or less people. How many cabins have three or less people?" Lys asked.

"Currently, only five, including you. The other four are the Big Three: Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades, and the Dionysus cabin, which only has two people in it," Cali explained.

"Oh, that's pretty cool, I guess," Lys said.

"Pretty cool?" I said, jumping into the conversation. "Trust me Lys, you'll think it's so much more than 'pretty cool' once you've had a taste of the action."

I looked over at Cali and we both smiled.

"Just look at Cali here," I continued. "She's going to be bawling her eyes out once we take the lead from her Tuesday night."

"Oh, in your dreams, flower girl," Cali replied.

"Ok, ok, so before you two kill each other, can you at least explain the points system to me?" Lys asked.

"Oh, gladly," Cali and I replied at the same time.

"Ok, so there's twenty-one cabins at camp and now that you're here, nineteen of them are occupied," Cali started.

"And five have the choice of joining a team, so at the minimum, there will be fourteen teams vying for points," I continued.

"Not all of them can get points, or else that would ruin the competition part at the end of the month, so only the top ten teams receive points," Cali said.

"First place gets your team fifteen points and the golden laurels until the next event. Second place gets thirteen points and the silver laurels and third place gets ten points and the bronze laurels. The rest of the teams don't get laurels, but places four through ten still get points."

"Fourth place receives eight points, fifth gets seven, sixth gets six points, seventh four, eighth three, ninth two and tenth place gets one. If you finish lower than tenth your team gets no points."

"And also," I said, "if you are on the winning team of capture the flag, which is every Friday night, your cabin gets an additional five points added to the standings."

"Ok," Lys said, "so what are the standings as of right now?"

"Athena currently leads with 31 points," Cali said proudly.

"Yeah, but Demeter is second with 30," I shot back.

"Poseidon is third, Zeus is fourth, and Hermes, surprisingly, is fifth. They have 27, 24 and 16 points respectively."

"Hades is sixth, with 13 points; Ares is seventh, with 11; Apollo, Hephaestus, Dionysus, Nike, Nemesis, and Hecate are tied for eighth with 8; Iris and Hebe are tied for fourteenth with 6; and Morpheus, Aphrodite and Hypnos are tied for sixteenth with 5 points."

"And obviously I'm last, with 0," Lys said.

"Hey, think on the bright side, Lys," I said. "You can't go anywhere but up."

"Yeah, sure," she said half-heartily.

We arrived at the stables. Snowball immediately gave me a greeting whinny and I walked over to him and gave him a couple of sugar cubes.

"Hey buddy, how's it going?" I asked him while petting him on his nose. Snowball whinnied happily in response.

"Oh my gods, he's beautiful!" Lys said with a gasp.

Snowball was indeed a beautiful horse, and I think he knows it too. Snowball is pure white, which makes it really hard to clean him if he gets dirty (which he does a lot). His wingspan is around eleven feet long and he can fly extremely fast.

Lys kept going around and petting the other pegasi when she noticed Snowball's sister.

"Oh my gods, this one's even better!" Lys exclaimed. I frowned at that. I didn't think anyone was better than Snowball, but obviously Lys disagreed. She turned towards me. "He looks just like Snowball except for the small gray dots speckled all over him."

"That's Snowball's sister. Her name is Snowflake. I guess I sort of own her too." I gave Lys a couple of sugar cubes. "Go on and feed her."

Lys walked up to Snowflake's stable and fed her the sugar cubes. Snowflake obviously liked the sugar cubes as her tail swished back and forth while she ate. After she was done eating, Lys put her hand on Snowflake's mane and patted her behind her ears.

I noticed that Snowflake's tail had never stopped moving back and forth, even after she was done eating.

"She seems to like you Lys," I said.

"I like her too. She's a beautiful horse."

"Well, how about this then," I said. "Taking care of two pegasi is kind of annoying for me, so how would you like to keep Snowflake as a gift?"

"Keep Snowflake? Like she's mine?" Lys asked.

"Why not?" I said. "I know you're a good kid, Lys. You would take good care of her, I'm sure. I could teach you how to feed her, how to brush her, how to clean her when she's dirty. And most importantly, how to ride her. Plus, that way, when I'm out of camp sometimes, I know you could be here to take care of Snowball for me too."

"Yeah, I would love that. Thanks Jenn." She gave me a hug, which I returned.

She returned to Snowflake's side.

"You hear that, 'flake? You're mine now. We're going to have such fun together." Snowflake whinnied in response.

I laughed. "Bonding already?"

"I got to start early," Lys replied with a smile.

I could see Cali was smiling too.

I think the three of us could have stood there for hours, but the conch horn signaled that it was time for dinner.

"C'mon Lys, let's get you to dinner."

On the way over to the pavilion, and between Cali and I, we were able to explain to Lys about dinner. We told her that the drinks could be anything that you wanted, as long as it was non-alcoholic. We explained that you had to scrape the best part of the meal into the brazier as a sacrifice to the gods.

As we entered the pavilion, I explained the one thing that I was sure she wasn't going to like.

"Lys, one more thing." She turned towards me. "Camp rules state that you have to sit with your cabin, so you're going to be alone for all of the meals." I pointed to the table that had a picture of a fire etched into the wood. "That's your table. If you have any questions, Cali and I will be at our tables. Feel free to come up to us. You can't sit down at another cabin's table, camp rules, but we'll be willing to walk somewhere else and talk, ok?"

"Ok, thanks for explaining guys." Her voice sounded really soft and sad, which isn't surprising since I just told her she had to eat alone.

"Hey, how about this?" I said quickly before we had to sit down. "After dinner I'll give you that pegasus riding lesson on Snowflake, ok?"

Lys's face lit up. "Really?" She asked.

"Yeah. There's no sing-along tonight, since people are still arriving for the summer session. I can take you out as soon as dinner is over. Cali would you like to come too?"

"Sure," Cali replied. "I haven't been able to take Barbs out for a ride since I've been here, so it would be good to let him be free."

"Who's Barbs?" Lys asked.

"Barbs is my pegasus," Cali replied. "I called him Barbs because his fur is the color of barbed wire."

"Oh, that's _really_ cool," Lys said.

"Yeah, hopefully dinner goes fast so we can get out there before it gets really dark," Cali said.

"Ok," Lys replied. She bounded over to her table, and Cali and I both laughed. We joined our respective tables and dinner began.

Unfortunately for us, dinner went especially long that night because planes had been delayed from the airport and other campers had arrived later than normal, so around fifty or so people arrived in the middle of dinner.

Lys was introduced as a daughter of Hestia at dinner, which surprised everyone, but Chiron explained that she would be treated like any other demigod, which Lys thanked him for.

The second dinner was over, Lys sprinted out of the pavilion, practically dragging Cali and I behind her.

The riding lesson itself didn't take very long, but Lys didn't want to land. It took a half hour, but I eventually got Lys and Snowflake to come back to the stables.

Cali and I taught Lys how to groom Snowflake, the things she should and should not feed her, what to do if she became sick and so on and so forth.

By the time we had taught her all of this, the sun had set, so we decided to call it a night. Cali left to head back to her cabin, but since we still had around an hour until curfew, I headed back to the Hestia cabin with Lys. There, she told me her story, which I was utterly amazed at. She told me about her attack on the way here, and the weird dream she had, which made me confused.

Lys and I kept talking, and I would have lost track of time, but luckily the conch sounded signaling curfew. I said good-bye to Lys and told her I would meet her after breakfast (I told Chiron I would lead her around for the first couple of days to get her in the groove of the summer session). I headed back to my cabin and got ready for bed, prepared to meet whatever would come my way on the first day of the summer session.

* * *

The next day went by in a blur. Lys had no trouble at all at her first day at camp. Her day (and mine) started off with swordfighting class, which Lys was stoked about. She actually wasn't that bad with a sword, although she told me she preferred her knife. She had her first go on the climbing wall, she failed horribly at canoeing (which was to be expected), and in our free time we went out and rode our pegasi.

There was a lot of hype at dinner that night, as the cabin event for the next day was going to be announced. Cali and I glowered at each other when the current standings were announced, but then we shared a laugh, and got weird looks form everyone else.

When one of the satyrs ran up with a sealed envelope and handed it to Chiron, every single camper sat forward in their seat in anticipation of the event.

"The first event of the summer session will be," Chiron said as he opened the envelope, "Canoeing. Cabins 1, 3, 12, 13 and 14 you have five minutes to decide whether or not to join a team."

I made a quick glance over to Lys and then turned back to my table. We discussed strategy for the event for the five allotted minutes when Chiron interrupted us.

"Heroes, attention! Now, Cabins 1, 3, 12, 13 and 14, what are your decisions?" To no one's surprise, everyone picked team except for Adon, who opted to stay by himself. Since he could control the water, he was automatically the favorite in this event.

"Ok, Cabin 1 will be teamed with Cabin 11; Cabin 12 will be teamed with Cabin 9; Cabin 13 will be teamed with Cabin 16; and Cabin 14 will be teamed with Cabin 18," Chiron announced.

Lys looked confused, so I mouthed 'Nemesis' to her. Her look of confusion cleared, so I can only guess she understood me. I turned back to my table.

"Ok," Summer was saying, "so we aren't getting any more help. I'll be in the very back directing the boat. Jeff, you'll be right in front of me since you're the strongest. Jeremy, sit right in front of Jeff, so you will automatically be on the other side. That should equal out your guys' strength. The rest of you can just space yourselves out and try to figure out what's best. After the sing-along tonight we can head out and get our positions down."

"But Summer," Jenna pointed out, "the course won't be put out until tomorrow morning."

"I know that," Summer replied. "We can eat lunch fast tomorrow and do our pre-run of the course then. Tonight, we're just going to get the positioning and timing down. We're not going to venture far from the dock. I know it's going to be dark out."

"Ok, that makes sense," Jenna said.

"And also," Summer added, "try to conserve most of your energy tomorrow. I know we're second in the standings. If we get second here, we're automatically in first place, so please no one go all out on the climbing wall tomorrow."

I don't know if it was subconscious or not, but everyone at our table looked at little Colton, who had failed miserably at the all-out climbing wall earlier that day.

"What?" He said nervously. "Stop staring at me." The whole table broke out into laughter.

"Come on guys," Summer said with a smile, "let's go sing some songs."

After the sing-along, we practiced our canoeing for around an hour before we called it a night.

The next day, you could tell everyone was taking it easy. Swordfighting class was a joke. No one went on the climbing wall, including little Colton. The canoeing course was laid out in the morning. It was a simple course, just out to the buoy and back. We headed out to the lake at lunch to complete our practice run. It seemed like a bunch of the other teams had the same idea as us. Five or six other teams were out on the lake. I saw Lys preparing with her Nemesis teammates. She gave me a smile and I returned a glare (hey, it's a competition).

Dinner was short that night. The anticipation of the event was through the roof (er, well so to say, since the pavilion doesn't have a roof). Finally, Chiron stood up.

"Heroes!" He started. "As you all know, the canoeing event is tonight!" A cheer arose from the campers. "Yes, yes, I know you're all excited. Before we head down to the lake there is one change I must announce." There was complete silence. "Cabin 12 has elected to run the race by themselves. Cabin 9 will no longer be paired with Cabin 12." Immediately, every single camper head turned towards the Dionysus table. Everyone started whispering. I knew they must have had something up their sleeve. No one would be stupid enough to break off the Hephaestus cabin, especially in a test like this, where strength could be a huge advantage.

Chiron continued, "The start of the race will be signaled by the conch horn. Anyone who crosses the line before the sounding of the horn will be disqualified." That sent another murmur of whispering flying around the pavilion. That was some serious news. "You may head down to the lake now."

Everyone filed quietly down to the lake. Tensions were very high as the teams put their canoes in the water and climbed in. I noticed that the Dionysus siblings had set up next to Adon.

The conch horn sounded. Almost immediately, I heard a splash and saw that the Hermes boat had flipped. All of the Hermes kids were laughing like crazy. I felt bad for Casey. She got an unlucky pairing with those guys. Adon, of course, with his control over the water had taken off and, was that the Dionysus cabin? Yes, somehow the Dionysus cabin was right behind Adon. Then I saw how they did it. I heard Summer swear under her breath from the back of the canoe.

"Why didn't any of us think of that?" She asked. The Dionysus siblings had summoned grapevines that attached to the back of Adon's canoe.

They got the whole way to the buoy before Adon noticed what they had done. He took out his sword and cut the vines. It didn't really matter though. There was no way anyone was going to catch the Dionysus cabin now. Not when they only had to paddle for half of the course rather than the whole course.

The race was now for third place. The Hephaestus and Ares cabins were neck-in-neck for third when we passed the halfway point to the buoy. We were just in front of the Athena cabin in fifth when the Nemesis cabin and Lys passed us quickly. We reached the buoy still in sixth and I saw that the Hermes cabin had gotten back in their canoe (with threats from Casey no doubt) and were now gaining on the back of the pack.

I turned back to our race. Athena was right behind us now. Summer was calling the stroke.

"Stroke, stroke, stroke, switch!" On the _switch_ everyone in the cabin took their paddle and switched it to the other side. We had practiced this switch for an hour last night, so everything went smoothly. We started to gain on Lys and her Nemesis teammates, but we were running out of time. The finish line loomed only a hundred yards away, but we still were fifteen yards behind them. The Athena cabin was also starting to gain on us. I knew we had a decision to make. Either we could continue to go after the Nemesis cabin and risk having the Athena cabin pass us, or just settle for sixth place and make sure we beat the Athena cabin.

We started to drift towards our right and I knew Summer had decided on the second option. We finished the race in sixth and made sure the Athenians finished behinds us in seventh.

When everyone had finished, I looked at the final standings for the race. Poseidon had won obviously, and Dionysus had gotten second. Ares beat out Hephaestus for third, and fifth, sixth and seventh we already knew. Hecate had finished eighth, and surprisingly Hermes had battled back for ninth. Nike's cabin had grabbed the last point by finishing tenth.

Adon walked up to Chiron and collected the golden laurels. Georgia Cooper, the seventeen year old head councilor for the Dionysus cabin, walked up and collected the silver laurels. Finally, Brandon West, the very-well-built sixteen year old head councilor for the Ares cabin, walked confidently up to Chiron and received the bronze laurels.

The overall standings were updated. Poseidon, with the win, moved into first place with 42 points. We stayed in second with 36 points. Athena dropped to third with 35 points. Zeus was fourth with 26 and Ares and Dionysus were tied for fifth with 21. Hermes dropped to seventh with 18 points. Hades and Hephaestus were now tied for eighth with 16. Nemesis moved up to tenth with 15 points and Hecate was now eleventh with 11 points. Nike was twelfth, Apollo was thirteenth and Hestia was fourteenth. They had 9, 8 and 7 points respectively. Iris, Hebe, Morpheus, Aphrodite and Hypnos did not gain any points, so they were still tied for fifteenth and seventeenth places with 6 points and 5 points.

Chiron told us all to head back to our cabins and to get some rest.

* * *

Everything was fine and normal until breakfast the next morning. Lys came up to me after she was done eating.

"Jenn, I need to talk with you."

"Yeah, sure." I excused myself from my table and followed her outside. Lys had gotten Cali as well and we walked to Cabin 14.

"What's up, Lys?" Cali asked. Lys was silent for a moment before she started crying.

Between sobs she managed to say, "Aaron's missing."

I immediately stopped what I was doing. I looked over at Cali, and she had a look of concern on her face.

"Are you sure?" I asked.

"Yeah," Lys said. "Mom sent me a-a dream message last night."

"Telling you he was missing?" Lys nodded. "Ok, what can we do about it?"

"I-I don't know. That's why I wanted to talk to you guys."

"Ok Lys," Cali said. "We'll figure it out. Let's give it a couple of days and if you hear anything else, anything at all, come find Jenn and I and we'll go with you and talk to Chiron about it, ok?"

"Ok, thanks guys."

"No problem Lys. We're here for you."

The next three days were full of tension for the three of us. Every time I would see Lys, she would shake her head, telling me that she hadn't heard anything new. Even capture the flag Friday night wasn't enough to get me out of the tension filled atmosphere, and we had won too.

* * *

The night after capture the flag, I had my worst dream ever.

I was standing in a dark cave. Stalactites and stalagmites came out from every angle looking sharp and deadly.

I ventured deeper into the cave. Everything was pitch black, but somehow I could still see. I was walking for around five minutes before the path opened up into a big cavern. In the middle of the cavern was a wooden stake around ten feet tall. But that wasn't what scared me. Tied to the stake was a young kid. He looked to be around thirteen years old. His shirt was ripped and tattered and you could see several cuts on his body. His auburn brown hair looked like it was supposed to be spiked like a fauxhawk in the front, but now it was full of dirt and grime. He looked very familiar, but I wasn't sure why.

It wasn't until he opened his eyes that I realized 1) that he was alive and 2) why he was so familiar. His intense green eyes searched the room.

"Yes, he is here." The voice carried easily throughout the cavern. It was an ancient voice. One that sounded even older than the gods. "The others aren't here, but you will never be able to find them. The world will soon be as dark as this cave. Good luck little heroes. I will enjoy your deaths." And with that I woke up.

* * *

The next morning was terrible. I must have looked really bad after my dream last night because my cabinmates kept asking me if I was ok. I shrugged them off. I needed to talk with Lys immediately.

I headed off to breakfast but didn't eat anything. The second Lys and Cali entered, I walked over to them. At the same time, the three of us said, "We need to talk."

Luckily Cali was smart that morning. "Breakfast first, then meet at Cabin 14." The three of us quickly scarfed down our meals and headed for the Hestia cabin.

When we were all settled in the cabin, Lys spoke.

"I had a dream last night," she said.

"So did I," Cali and I said at the same time.

"That's weird," Lys said. "All three of us having a dream on the same night. It's like-"

"They're connected," Cali said.

"Yeah." But I had a hunch about the dreams. The voice referred to me in the plural form, as if it was talking to more than one person.

"Or we had the same dream," I said.

"What do you mean, Jenn?" Cali asked.

"I think the fact that we all had a dream on the same night is significant because we had the same dream. Let me prove it to you. Lys, what was your dream about?"

"Well, uh," she started. "I was in this dark cave, and after walking for a while, I walked into this cavern and my brother-" Her voice broke. "My brother was there. Then this voice spoke-"

"And told you that the world will soon be dark, just like the cave?" Cali finished.

"Yeah."

"You see my point? I had the exact same dream," I said.

"We need to talk with Chiron immediately," Cali said.

"Yeah, let's go," Lys said. They got up to leave.

"Hold on girls," I said. There's something more to this. You have to sense at least that much."

"What do you mean, Jenn?" Cali asked.

"This isn't just about Aaron." I turned to Lys. "Remember those musicians that went missing?" Lys nodded her head. "Well-"

"Wait," Cali interrupted. "What musicians?" Lys quickly filled her in on her first dream. "Ok, but what does that have to do with Aaron?"

"Ok," I said. "Remember in the dream, the voice said, 'Yes, he is here,' but it also said-"

"'The others aren't here but you will never be able to find them,'" Cali said. "So you think 'the others' are these musicians?"

"I believe so, yes."

"So, what do you think we should do?" Lys asked.

"Now," I said, "we talk with Chiron."

The three of us got up and, as calmly as we could, headed over to the Big House.

When we got there, I took the initiative.

"Chiron, we need to talk," I said. He stopped his pinochle game and turned towards us.

"Yes, ladies. How may I help you?"

We told him our predicament. As we got to the part about the missing musicians, his face paled. When we finished, he spoke slowly, but effectively.

"Ladies, this is serious business. Not only has Aaron gone missing, but these musicians are much more than just musicians."

"Who are they Chiron?" Cali asked.

"Have you not guessed?" He asked.

I was stumped. I could tell Cali was too. I was about to answer that we didn't know when Lys spoke.

"The Muses," she said. "I mean, that's what they're called, right?"

"That's correct, Alyssa," Chiron replied. "The greatest musicians Greek Mythology has ever known have disappeared. Olympus is on the brink of chaos. I knew a quest had to be sent soon, but I wasn't sure who should be sent. Now it is clear. Alyssa, you are the leader of this quest. The dream came to you first. If you choose to take it, you must see the Oracle. What is your decision? Will you lead the quest?"

"I have to," she replied. "My brother is in trouble."

"Very well. To the attic, my dear. Assuming you're still sane when you come back down, we can discuss the journey."

And on that happy note, Lys left for the attic.

* * *

**A/N:**

**So, what do you think the prophecy is going to be about?**

**What was the mysterious voice? Could it be Kronos rising from the depths of Tartarus?**

**You must read on to find out.**

**Also, check out my other story, The Princess and the Peasant. And look for my new story, The Big Three, to come out next Tuesday (the 21st). If you want to know what it's about, look on my website. The link can be found on my profile.**

**Make sure you guys review!**

**Thanks!**

**-PSON**


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